Tag Archive - stress

How Writers Can Deal with Unsupportive Family and Friends

Today’s guest post is by Lisa Fellinger. 

I often hear writers frustrated with the lack of support some receive from their family and/or friends about their writing. “Lack of support” runs the gamut from not respecting a writer’s need for time to work on their writing to teasing or harassing them for their dream to be a published author.

I’ve seen too many writers hide their writing from friends and family or stop writing altogether due to not feeling respected by those close to them for their writing dreams.

While it’s difficult to give advice without the specifics of each writer’s situation, here are some tips for how to deal with unsupportive family and friends and keep writing. Continue Reading…

How Facing Your Space Could Improve Your Writing

Today’s guest post is by architect Donald M. Rattner.

As an architect who studies the psychology of creative space, and the author of a recently published book on the subject, I’m often asked by my fellow scriveners what the most common mistake writers make in fitting out their physical workspace.

Easy, I reply. They’re looking the wrong way.

Looking the wrong way? It sounds like what happens to a North American who travels to the UK and forgets that the traffic moves in opposite directions when stepping out into the street.

No, what I’m referring to isn’t about failing to adjust for unaccustomed traffic patterns. It has to do with how we humans have been genetically encoded to orient themselves to our environment, and how we remain guided by that code even though the conditions that prompted this bit of bioengineering have long disappeared.

To understand what I’m getting it, we’ll need to travel back in time about 190,000 years, to when the first Homo sapiens emerged on the African savanna. Continue Reading…

5 Simple Practices to Eliminate Writer’s Block and Attract Creative Ideas

Today’s post is by Mukesh Mani.

How wonderful it feels to be in that zone, where you are totally lost in your writing; ideas flowing effortlessly, writing without a break for a good few hours. Nothing can replace that feeling for a writer. It’s like driving a car in top gear on a buttery smooth road with no traffic.

But not every day is the same, and sometimes we are faced with moments of extreme frustration when ideas just won’t flow, sentences stop midway, and there is a whole lot of backspacing and deleting to the point where we even start doubting our skills as a writer!

All of these non-flowy, stop-and-go traffic moments can be summed up into two words: writer’s block.  And it has spared none; from world-renowned writers to absolute beginners, everyone has experienced it.

Stress, anxiety, self-doubt, fear, distractions, an uninspiring subject, and pressure of a deadline are some of the many factors that can give rise to these non-flowy moments. Continue Reading…

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